These seemingly insignificant things actually save us a lot of time. Bookmarks are like pens (and people) - they turn up in random places when you need them, they're incredibly useful, and then they usually disappear.

I have about a dozen bookmarks. I use them extensively as I consider them to be more reliable than my memory. On starting a new book, I amuse myself by deciding which bookmark best matches the character of the book. From that point on, the book and its bookmark are inseparable. My "Season's Greetings" bookmark - the one with the cute picture of a robin in the snow - is currently guarding my place in the book that I'm reading on climate change.

Do you have any special ones? I have one with my name on that I keep for best. Are there any Biggles bookmarks out there?

"Where the dickens did you spring from?" he inquired."Oh, I was just hanging around, you know, in case I was wanted," returned Algy lightly.Biggles Defies the Swastika

I never use bookmarks. Bookmarks fall out of books, necessitating much page turning to find my page, and much scrambling on the floor to find the bookmark. This is especially fun on a crowded train, although it does help you to meet new people. I either leave my books open face down (*grins at the collective intake of disapproving breath*) or remember my page number.

I've stitched a few for my mother, though, as she likes a bookmark.

'Major Bigglesworth' said Von Stalhein coldly, 'there are times when I seriously wonder if you were created by the devil just to annoy me.'

I like bookmarks and have a fair few. There are quite a lot that have gone AWOL if not actually deserted, because, as Kismet pointed out, they take great delight in leaping out of your book and hiding until you've given up looking for them.I persevere with them, but eventually, they do go their own way.

I do have a Biggles bookmark, courtesy of the Envelope Project, from OzB, which I use for all the delightful aviation books I read from the Montrose Museum. At the moment, it is tucked into Ginger Lacey, Fighter Pilot.

The Decision to Survive - A good pilot is both born and made. The best would look upon his work as a combination of adventure and a serious mission. – Major General Sir Frederick Sykes

I do have quite a few bookmarks, but they are a set of Biggles ones so I don't use them in case I lose one! I have one I got from the National Theatre which has a picture of Alan Bennett's hands; I love that because I love Alan Bennett. I am careful with it.

If there's one thing certain in this uncertain world it is that Algy won't go home without us.

Fairblue wrote:I like bookmarks and have a fair few. There are quite a lot that have gone AWOL if not actually deserted, because, as Kismet pointed out, they take great delight in leaping out of your book and hiding until you've given up looking for them.I persevere with them, but eventually, they do go their own way.

I do have a Biggles bookmark, courtesy of the Envelope Project, from OzB, which I use for all the delightful aviation books I read from the Montrose Museum...

I have about a dozen or more that I have used both regularly & at random in the past...usually received with purchases from recognised dealers on ABE, or from local new bookstores wishing to get my business in the future.

But currently I'm using 2 of my Envelope Project bookmarks...one from Arbroath [I wonder who that could be from? lol] & the one you mention FB. Actually, the larger 'Biggles' one is from RSG, mine is the smaller 'faded' one, scanned by me from my 1950's Hodder & Stoughton original. Mine is the mini 'pic' or portrait of Biggles [with the list of books below], pretty much identical to the frontispiece image taken from Takes A Holiday, i.e. in that reddish/black hue.

They've been working together for so long that each seems to know by a sort of telepathy when another is in trouble. One never seems to get them together. Get one & the others come after him. To give the devil his due they make a formidable team.

I never have enough bookmarks! 'Bookmark' for me is anything I can find, from a scrap of paper to a receipt, or a playing card; anything. I find it difficult trying to remember what page I was on last though, so find them invaluable.

Petroffsky beamed. 'Now you may be certain of seeing me soon,' he declared. 'Au revoir. Remember, my rifle is at your command.''And my chocolate is at yours,' returned Biggles, smiling. 'Goodbye for now.'Biggles Gets His Men.

Kismet wrote:Way back when I was doing A levels, I wrote notes actually on my books, in the margins, so I had my notes and the text together. It worked very well for me as long as too much didn't need recording.

In high schools over here, the books belong to the school and you get in big trouble if you write in them. But at university, the individual students buy the books, so they can write and highlight all over them, which I did. I also liked purchasing secondhand ones, because of the price difference but also because I thought it was worthwhile to see what the previous year's students had found meaningful. (Thoughtful people would also write notes in the margins like "this is on the exam!")

"For goodness sake stop that Yankee drawl, or you'll have us all doing it before you've finished.""OK baby - sorry - I mean, righto.""That's better."

I have loads of bookmarks. I never close a book I'm still reading without using one. As I usually have 2 or 3 books on the go, and am at the age where remembering why I just went upstairs is a challenge, it saves me a great deal of angst.

My most beautiful bookmark is a metal Saxon cross that I bought in Glastonbury. Otherwise I use thin card ones.

I would never write in a book just wasn't done in my day. And I'm shocked at Biggles turning the corners of his pages.

pilots who had done a long tour and had that thousand-yard stare W. E. Johns

I did some years as a "Saturday Assistant" plus holiday relief in a Public Library.

The list of unusual objects that got left as bookmarks would, I think, fill a book.The staff newsletter circulated all around the county's libraries had an occasional listing - It had things like love letters, slice of streaky bacon (book ruined), money, return half of railway tickets, shopping lists and so on.

The editor ran a poll, to see what had been used as bookmarks ...one wit replied "dirty fingers" !

Apart from the oddities list, these mostly seemed to be turned down or torn off corners, and circled or marked page numbers ...

They've been working together for so long that each seems to know by a sort of telepathy when another is in trouble. One never seems to get them together. Get one & the others come after him. To give the devil his due they make a formidable team.

I thought it was some sort of urban legend, but was shown photographs ... the book wasn't anything special, so was chucked, the raw grease had soaked in a bit. Not sure how old the pics were, but this was back in the mid-1970s !

Tracer wrote:It's so sad that people don't have respect for books - especially as library books are not 'their' books.

I really hate it when people underline phrases or make notes in the margins.

Totally agree! Now I don't want to get stuck into smokers, but one book I bought from eBay, when it arrived & I opened the package, it just reeked of stale tobacco smoke. And another book I have just read [I got it for free from an extinct RSL library], had tobacco shavings on many pages, which had stained quite a lot of the words over time. Obviously the reader [putting on my Sherlock Holmes deerstalker hat, lol] was sitting reading with the book on their lap, or perhaps a table, & rolling cigarettes above the book...and losing some of the tobacco as it fell into the pages.

They've been working together for so long that each seems to know by a sort of telepathy when another is in trouble. One never seems to get them together. Get one & the others come after him. To give the devil his due they make a formidable team.

A very unusual idea EFR. My favourite bookmark is one I found in a second hand book and I use it all the time now. I recently bought a second hand book which reeks of cigarettes. Rolling your own cigarettes reminds me of Mr. Frecks when he was younger. He rolled them very thin to economise on tobacco.

I once found an cross stitch sampler recording a wedding in the 1950s (done much later for an anniversary, I think) in a second hand book. I suppose I ought to put it on the internet to see if any relatives are about that I could pass it onto.

'Major Bigglesworth' said Von Stalhein coldly, 'there are times when I seriously wonder if you were created by the devil just to annoy me.'